Poet Republik-Jameson O'Hara Laurens
We are happy to announce Jameson O’Hara Laurens as the winner of the Ping-Pong Free Press Poetry Prize 2016: Judge, Melissa Broder. Her collection MEDÆUM was published Fall of 2016, here is a poem from this outstanding collection. Congratulations Jameson!
INVILE
In my back patch
blackberries coagulate through sticky skins
You can’t pick them without drawing blood.
Each year the house hidden at the far end in the bramble
slinks an inch farther away.
What is the opposite of an exile? An invile?
Sweeping the clay with her robes,
curing swaths of shorn grass
with a train of her grieving?
Not yet alive are the hills with their howling.
The sky scowls.
Three dogs told me in a dream.
A bird opened the Bosphorus for his crossing.
A bird flew into the house.
History about as light as a loadstone.
The soul of the proprietor is worn thin.
The partriarchs are dying off
but no one can pull the keys from their clutches,
rigor mortis crisps, & their
lips & gates smack shut.
I see them here outrunning
what they didn’t know still ran in their veins
Outrunning sleeves they forgot they were wearing
so long they spill over their limbs and to the ground.
Don’t try to affect airs.
Get out of my light.
pc: P. Bouclainville
Regarding the creation of her book, Laurens writes that she was already working on a series of persona poems when she discovered that the voice of Medea rang especially true to her: “I felt that it needed to speak through one of my characters. [Moreover,] what if we recognized that her crimes are metaphorical?… Like any enemy, Medea was easier to label as a murderess than she was to truly understand as a character who transformed from ingenue to warrior, to outcast, to mother, to sorceress, to murderess.”
The result, Laurens states, is: “a manuscript on misbehavior. Its intention is to investigate with empathy the peculiarity and rage that inhabits the Medea of Greek mythology. It also allows for the uncomfortable notion that she is incarnate today in women who,… caught between duty and true nature, are faced with impossible choices.”
Jameson O’Hara Laurens completed her MFA in poetry and translation in 2014, and has collaborated with artists, choreographers, and translators. She is fortunate to call a bilingual secondary literature classroom her professional home, and has recently received research sabbatical and leadership grants for teaching projects. Having grown up in the West, she has an ongoing concern for the natural world, and for all things apiary. She became a feminist writer by necessity. Her work has appeared in Enclave, Alexandria Quarterly, Hawkmoth, and Poet Republik. MEDÆUM is her first collection.
Astrid Hofferson is 20 and her name means Divine Beauty. She’s a warrior of Clan Hofferson of the Hooligan tribe there in Berk. She is 5’9, has blue eyes and one thick blonde braid. She is sarcastic, tough, athletic, beautiful and very determined making her extremely hard to impress. Astrid is also kind, caring, understanding and intelligent making her second in command in Dragon Defenders. She is in a long term relationship with the new Chief of Berk, Hiccup. She loves riding her Deadly Nadder Stormfly. She’s competitive and besides her fist Astrid’s weapon of choice is an axe.
One character that has always stood out to me and fascinated me is that of Violet Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Violet not only kept her family sane and protected them from their vile twisted uncle whom became their legal guardian after their parents passed away but also ensured that they had a happy life away from this mad man of an uncle called Count Olaf. The protagonist Violet along with her brother Klaus and sister Sunny, went through hell and back (figuratively) to ensure Count Olaf would cease the day of existence and stop becoming their legal guardian as he was only interested in their fortune. These children especially Violet are true examples of never giving up as they did not give up until Count Olaf got what he desevered!
She is young, adventurous, curious, limited in her venture. She has known one life and one life only. She dreams of the outside world, even though she has never been. She is not one bit apprehensive, she is willing to give It all for just one second in the life she dreams. She has hair as red as a rose, eyes as blue as the ocean, skin as fair as the sand and a spirit as free as the ocean.
My childhood dream character, I always felt this character was a direct replica of me! Ariel from the little mermaid! ❤️
Proximity and sweetness comes at a price, all three tied to the same scale.
History like a magnet clipped to our shoulders, locking onto our own experiences and sometimes the experiences of those around us. There’s always a collection of dust that accumulates when carrying such a load, often unnoticed or unacknowledged until it’s too late and even then the blindness remains fixed. However, sometimes the light bulb flickers on and we’re able to perform that overdue dusting and rid ourselves of all those things we’ve unintentionally hoarded.